The bar's lighting was dim. After the bartender spoke to him, Ren carefully observed the weapons dealer before him, a high-ranking member of the Serpent cult.
She seemed to be deliberately standing in a carefully chosen backlit spot, making it impossible to see her complete features. Ren could only make out her graceful, slender figure tightly wrapped in the bartender uniform, and a beauty mark perfectly placed near the corner of her lips on her fair, delicate chin.
The female weapons dealer's voice was pleasant, carrying a lazy undertone, sounding rather nonchalant. Combined with her composed posture in the shadows, an immediate sense of pressure, mystery, and danger washed over him.
Ren instinctively clenched his fist but quickly relaxed his tense body again. Under Raven's surprised gaze, he put on an air of nonchalance.
"Quite surprising. Just a high school student, yet so composed when facing me. As expected of someone introduced by that Hare. In terms of mindset alone, your maturity far exceeds your age."
Raven raised an eyebrow slightly. Her initially indifferent attitude finally became a bit more serious as she slowly praised Ren. While hiding in the impenetrable shadows, Raven had intentionally released a sliver of her aura to intimidate Ren, applying psychological pressure.
That deliberately released pressure clearly had an effect; Ren had tensed up instantly. However, in the next moment, he seemed to treat it like a gentle breeze, completely ignoring the pressure she exerted. This sparked a flicker of curiosity within Raven.
As a top-tier mercenary and battle-hardened World Serpent operative, Raven could naturally tell Ren wasn't just pretending to be calm. He looked like an ordinary, unremarkable high school student. Yet, Ren showed no fear towards her, seemingly holding some trump card capable of turning the tables, displaying composure born from confidence.
And that was indeed the truth. If not for relying on Jizo Mitama, Ren would never have placed himself in danger by personally meeting this perilous female weapons dealer.
Through experiments and practice in Mementos, Ren, following Hare and Yae Sakura's advice, had successfully stored Jizo Mitama within his own heart, with Yae Sakura helping to manage and keep it.
As Ren's Persona, Yae Sakura possessed the ability to observe the outside world through Ren's body. With Yae Sakura acting as his third eye, scouting for hidden dangers in the surroundings, Ren felt completely secure.
If Ren encountered danger—for instance, if the weapons dealer in front of him pulled out a gun aiming for his head—Yae Sakura, wielding Jizo Mitama, could instantly project herself into the real world, appearing before Ren to protect him and resolve the crisis.
With such an ace up his sleeve, Ren naturally maintained his calm demeanor under Raven's astonished gaze.
"You can rest assured. These materials I've collected have all been inspected by Hare. They were confirmed to have selling value before I brought them here."
Ren spoke calmly to Raven, hidden in the darkness.
As he replied, Ren mentally clicked his tongue, realizing that Hare didn't use her real name, Misteln Schariac, even among the Serpent followers, but also went by the codename Hare. No, wait, chronologically speaking, Misteln must have directly told Ren her codename as a World Serpent operative.
Ren placed the black backpack slung over his shoulder onto the counter before him, gesturing towards Raven.
Wearing the snug bartender uniform that accentuated her curvy figure, Raven slowly emerged from the dimness. The half of her exquisite face previously hidden in shadow finally came into Ren's view.
Surprisingly, this dangerous and mysterious weapons dealer looked very young, her delicate and beautiful face appearing somewhat youthful. This lovely, almost doll-like face instantly stripped away some of the mystery and unfathomable danger, making her seem quite harmless and alluring.
However, Ren didn't let Raven's deceptively beautiful appearance make him overlook her inner nature as a high-ranking Serpent operative. He merely raised an eyebrow slightly in surprise, then quietly watched Raven approach him, reach out a slender hand, and unzip the bulging black backpack on the counter.
"Wait... This is?! Y-You just stuffed these things directly into your backpack, without any protective measures, and brought them here?!"
Raven's fair fingers gently pulled open the black backpack's zipper. Her intoxicating, wine-red eyes peeked through the opening at the contents within. Her full, well-proportioned body froze instantly. Her crimson pupils dilated to their maximum, and she sharply inhaled, her face even paling slightly.
Raven's youthful, delicate face twisted slightly as she stared at the oblivious Ren sitting at the counter.
Although she had only glanced inside through the zipper opening, the experienced and adept Raven was absolutely certain: this overstuffed black backpack contained a massive amount of high-purity Honkai Crystal fragments!!
The Honkai Crystal fragments in the backpack were an eerie purple, irregularly shaped—some cubic, others sharp clusters. The faint purple glow flickering in the darkness proved their extremely high purity, containing immense Honkai energy.
Currently, these crystal fragments were highly compressed into a solid state, appearing quite stable, not even leaking the slightest bit of Honkai energy. But if they were bumped or hit somewhere, causing these high-purity fragments to shatter—
Not the entirety of Nagazora City, perhaps, but at least a third of it would definitely plunge into a large-scale Honkai Eruption!!
Although Raven, with her strength as a World Serpent operative, could guarantee her own survival even if caught at the epicenter of a Honkai Eruption, this bar wasn't far from Chiba Academy. It was well within the potential one-third blast radius.
And Chiba Academy housed the yet-to-awaken Herrscher of Thunder! If the Second Eruption was instantly triggered by this, leading to the Herrscher of Thunder's birth, Raven had no confidence she could face a Herrscher head-on! Especially without the Third Divine Key, Seven Thunders of Retribution, on her.
While encountering the Herrscher of Thunder wasn't a certainty, Raven absolutely refused to gamble her life on such vague probabilities!!